If you're thinking of lighting up while a little one kicks in your tummy, this might stop you. Do you want an overweight child?

Being overweight or obese during pregnancy can put women at a higher risk for gestational diabetes, which increases the risk of birth complications.

Being obese and pregnant can carry a range of risks to the mother during pregnancy, but it also has consequences for her baby, in the short-term and the long-term.

Research is uncovering more and more about possible health risks to babies if their mothers are obese during pregnancy. Another one for the list: being born with low iron levels.

Shedding pounds before getting pregnant can reduce a number of health risks - but it may also add a few points to your child's reading and math scores. A recent study has found a link between a mother's weight before pregnancy and their children's cognitive skills: obese women's children score lower on math and reading tests when they were 5 to 7 years old. Get to a healthy weight before becoming pregnant. Lead author Rika Tanda , a nursing doctoral candidate at Ohio State University, and colleagues wanted to investigate potential connections between a mother's pre-pregnancy ob...

If money is always low and stress or depression is always high, moms may be overfeeding their babies - and thereby increasing their kids' risks of obesity. A recent unpublished study being presented at a conference found that the unhealthy practice of adding cereal to babies' bottles tends to occur more often among low-income mothers who are single and/or showing symptoms of depression or high stress. Don't add cereal to your baby's bottle. Lead author Candice Taylor Lucas, MD, a an associate professor of pediatrics at New York University School of Medicine and Bellevue Hospital...

It may not just be chicken nuggets and french fries adding too much weight to children's waistlines. The very air pregnant women breathe might play a small role too.

Children born to women with diabetes are more likely to be obese, but one way moms can reduce this risk is to breastfeed their babies. And the pattern is true for non-diabetics too.

Are you convinced that your muffin top isn't hurting anyone, so there's no need to lose it? Think again. A new study shows that packing on extra pounds is bad for your baby - even if you're not pregnant yet.

Sometimes pregnant women go overboard with weight gain because they believe they're eating for two. A new study shows that the extra weight gain may have a direct impact on the baby's future health.